Someone to Brave the Storm With
by Crispy-6usiness
Summary: Iroha can't sleep, so instead she makes a friend and realizes that it's okay to have fears. (Irohanri) (major fluff)


This story takes place in a fantasy setting, in an old magic academy. It's kind of like a permanent boarding school where people who can use magic go to hone their skills, but they don't really get to see their families at all. They also go at very young ages so, ye ah.  
Just a little background info for you so that some parts of this don't completely confuse you ahahah.  
**-3**

_Someone to Brave the Storm With - Rune Anri x Iroha Nekomura_

Iroha wasn't scared. She was a brave six year old, she wasn't afraid to scare monsters out of the younger children's rooms, she wasn't afraid to be the first to try new spells, she wasn't afraid to go into the dark, scary forest to retrieve lost toys, and she certainly wasn't afraid of thunderstorms.  
Ok, maybe she was a little afraid of thunderstorms.  
She could never sleep with the flashing lights, and the loud noises made her ears hurt, so she spent stormy nights lying awake in bed. This particular night was one of those nights.  
Iroha pulled the covers over her head to try to block it out, but the booming noises didn't stop, and she couldn't breathe through the heavy blankets, so she soon poked her head back out.  
It was still very early in the morning, so the dorm was dark, but along the dark green papered wall across from her, she could see the other children fast asleep in their beds.  
She sighed quietly, having someone awake with her always made thunderstorms easier to deal with. The rain sounded like it was letting up a little, so Iroha wriggled out of her blanket cocoon and looked around. Maybe she would get some sleep tonight after all.  
In the bed beside her own, was little Cul. She was actually a year or two younger than Iroha, but she was moved up to Iroha's grade for her impressive natural talent for fire magic. Iroha liked her, but Cul was shy and the two of them didn't talk much.  
Fast asleep on her other side, against the wall, was charming Lily. Lily was cool and talented, but above all, she was beautiful, and she knew it. She could seduce anyone, and used her charm to get what she wanted. Iroha thought she was funny, more than anything.  
Iroha found herself starting to doze off, until another lightning strike, the biggest one yet, lit up the room through the huge window and woke the little girl up all over again.  
The rain and thunder came on even harder than before, and it was clear that iroha wasn't getting back to sleep this time. She slowly slid out from under the blankets, making sure that the rest of the children in the room were still asleep, and crept out the door into the hallway.  
It was just as quiet in the long winding hallways of Miss Hatsune's Academy for the Magically Inclined as it was in her shared dorm, save for the sound of the pouring rain outside. Little Iroha was starting to worry that she was the only one in the whole school that was awake. She tried not to imagine being completely alone in the giant, dark, scary building as she wandered, and reminded herself of what her mother told her one night like this.  
"Iroha," she pulled her close and whispered in that airy voice of hers, "You don't have to be afraid of lightening, it's surely more scared of you than you are of it! You see, there are children in the sky who are all afraid of the dark, so on extra dark nights like this, they try to light it up with their magical powers," she poked Iroha's nose, causing a few giggles to bubble up in the little girl, even as another bolt of lightning struck, "Just like you have!"  
"Afraid of the dark?" Iroha had thought, completely believing her mother's tale, "I'm not afraid of the dark, I'm not afraid of anything!"  
That didn't stop her from being terrified of thunderstorms for long, though. She just learned how to hide it well.  
Sometimes she missed her mom during storms.  
She was shaken out of her thoughts by a strange sound, like strange, erratic breathing, coming from around the corner of the hallway. She jumped, _it was a monster! _  
What could it be? A dragoncat? No, it sounded too human. A lost elf? No no no no, there were no elves that lived anywhere near the academy. She slowly peeked around the corner and peered through the darkness to see the form of a little girl huddled against the wall, sniffling. Iroha stared at her, she certainly wasn't a monster.  
Another bolt of lightning lit up the room, and the little girl, a brunette with a round, childish face, let out a little 'eep' and brought her little knees up to her face. Iroha recognized the girl, she was new to the academy, brought in only days before, and she had a strange case of selective amnesia, so she didn't know what a lot of simple everyday things were. She remembered finding her out in the garden one day, trying to hold a conversation with a flower, thinking it was a small person.  
Iroha stepped out around the corner and sat down in front of the cowering girl.  
"Hello!" Iroha said, trying to sound calm as thunder rumbled through the hallway. The other girl lifted her head from behind her knees.  
"Hello," she said, barely audible. Her eyes were red watery. She hesitated, then pointed to the window at the end of the hallway and said, "Why is the outside angry?"  
Iroha had to keep herself from giggling. She liked this girl, she was cute and funny. "It's not angry," Iroha said, smiling, "It's called lightning." The other girl just looked at her with wide eyes. Iroha decided to elaborate.  
"See, there are children in the sky who are afraid of the dark, and when it gets too dark, they get scared and try to light up the sky with their magic!" She explained, using her smart voice, like her mother. She thought it made her sound mature.  
The girl looked mesmerized by her story. Iroha had to giggle this time. "So... They're afraid?"  
Iroha nodded, "they're more afraid of you than you are of them!"  
She looked much less scared after that, and Iroha found that she herself didn't feel as scared anymore.  
That is, until another huge bolt struck right above the building and thunder shook the old hallways, and they both jumped. The little girl clung to Iroha's arm, shaking again.  
"O- ooh, well they're still scary!" She said after a minute.  
"Yeah," Iroha agreed, her mother's story didn't change the fact that thunderstorms were loud and scary, but at least now Iroha had someone to brave the storm with, "My name is Iroha," she said, patting the other girl's back, "what's your name?"  
She looked up at her with those big blue eyes again, "Rune!"  
Iroha couldn't help but smile, "What a pretty name!" She stood up, taking Rune with her, "I like you, Rune. Let's be friends!" The look of pure joy on the girl's face seemed to brighten up the entire hallway.  
"Okay!"  
Eventually, the storm did let up and eventually, the two girls did get to sleep, but the two of them became inseparable, and neither of them stopped being terrified of thunderstorms.

**-3**  
I just really really like this pairing ahahah,,,,  
I hope that that amnesia headcanon didn't seem too forced into the plot ehe,,,

I'm doing a kind of 30 word challenge thing because I can never seem to come up with good ideas myself. This story's word was "Storm"!


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